My review of WreSpi2

[jbergey_2005]

Just in case any of you are unsure if you want to get this game. Here is my review! I was on the edge when WreSpi2 was first announced. I enjoyed WreSpi but wasnt sure if I was going to get it. Well of course being an impulse buyer and hear good things about it(Boon) I thought I would try the demo. I never really get into demo's too much so I played it for only a short realizing I was going to buy this game when it was released. I thought it looked nice, ran smoothly, and the in match AI seemed very good. Interface: Looks very good to me, has a similiar feel that TEW05 has. It is easy to find what you are looking for and there isnt any lag time. The only real negative is that the screen drops for a brief second every once in awhile. Its not real annoying but had me confused at first. I havent of any bugs either which is the most important thing. Artificial Int.- This is the most impressive part to me, it feels just like you would be wrestling another human opponent. I am very much struggling to win matches early on which is great for me. I am starting in rookie to legend mode and I am vastly over matched, my guy usually gets a little offense in but I usually lose. Some of the extras that were added to this version make for more realistic matches as well, the Hulk Hogan no sell was so realistic to me when I just let the computer play out a match I wish would have happened in the Rock'n wrestling age Hulk Hogan v Ricky Steamboat. Steamboat used his chops and technical moves to create an advantage and I one point i thought Hulk was done for, soon thereafter he caught his rush and after a few punches, a big boot, and the leg drop he had won the match. I can honestly say, that is EXACTLY how I would have expected that match to go if I was watching in 1986. I've mentioned the couple of things I would like added to this part in another thread so Im not going to repeat it again. Fun Factor- Another strong point, I am losing a lot of my matches but this is so fun I just can't wait to have another match. It is very addicting, much more so the wrespi the original. Added features: Some people dont like that cards as a way of creating friendships, myself I hated the first wrespi. I could turn my 8% rated mic skills performer into 50% in 3 months and just by talking and being nice to someone in the locker room, you were going to become their friend. The new approach is a lot more difficult. I am guessing some of you that are only making 4 friends out of 100 may not actually know how to play blackjack. I have had enough money to try 8 times, in this time, I have created 2 friends, got my $$ back twice, lost half of my money 3 times, and lost everything once. Using the bell curve approach, you should appx. make a friend around 15%, get your money back around 30%, lose 1/2 your money around 35%, and lose all of your money around 20%. This is the appx % based on the bell curve giving the computer a small advantage like they do in the game of blackjack. These numbers seem VERY realistic to me. The $$$ pot I also like, it makes it extremely difficult starting out, I havent advanced too far in the game so I dont know how this is as a career progresses. Cornellverse:Very well done, with all the different movesets and over 1000 workers. You really couldnt ask for much more from a fictional database. Also, a great mod has already been created by Boon and Rick Arnold. These both work very well in the game from what I have seen I am sure I am forgetting a lot. I have to admit I am very surprised how much I am enjoying this game. For a game like this to come out basically bug free is a compliment to Adam and the beta team. Very well done!

[Nutlaw]

I agree with the vast majority of this, and was also thinking that it is quite amazing to see a PC game in this day and age released with so few bugs (obvious ones, at least). It really is quite remarkable.

[D. Boons Ghost]

A very fair review; good job on it. I admire that even when losing, you are having a good time. That's pretty darned rare amongst people these days. You some kind of commie? *though by your avatar, you're at least a commie with good tastes. :) It's also one of the reasons I am hoping that this game does well enough to become a franchise. Wrestling Spirit is one of the few text-based games out there that actually reminds you you are playing a game, rather than hammering data into spreadsheets. It's just flat-out fun, in my opinion. Good job, jbergey.

[jbergey_2005]

[QUOTE=D. Boon's Ghost]A very fair review; good job on it. I admire that even when losing, you are having a good time. That's pretty darned rare amongst people these days. You some kind of commie? *though by your avatar, you're at least a commie with good tastes. :) It's also one of the reasons I am hoping that this game does well enough to become a franchise. Wrestling Spirit is one of the few text-based games out there that actually reminds you you are playing a game, rather than hammering data into spreadsheets. It's just flat-out fun, in my opinion. Good job, jbergey.[/QUOTE] LOL, Thanks D.Boon. I am not a commie, I do in fact enjoy a good challenge and feel very challenged at this point. I'm also glad you noticed Elisha Cuthbert:)

[Sartagis]

[QUOTE=D. Boon's Ghost]Wrestling Spirit is one of the few text-based games out there that actually reminds you you are playing a game, rather than hammering data into spreadsheets. It's just flat-out fun, in my opinion.[/QUOTE] *Hides all his spreedsheets* :o Nice review jbergey. And the Elisha pics from that photoshoot are HAWT HAWT HAWT!!

[Ja7482]

The best part about the matches (IMO) is the uncertainty of the outcome, trying your best to make the correct decisions throughout the match, and even then knowing your best might not be good enough. Most of today's wrestling games offer very little in terms of challenge outside of the initial first day or two of learning the timing and getting used to the controls. The numero uno culprit, from the small amount of wrestling games I have played, has been the WWE yukes offerings. I don't consider myself a great video game player or even good compared to many who can put me to shame....but....if I am working the 1vs1 Smackdown vs Raw matches after only a couple of days so I can be entertained against a computer that does not grasp square one in terms of strategy to beat me then I consider the game broken. The last wrestling video game I remember feeling a sense of tension before the match and thinking to myself that "I have to play a great to near-perfect match, or I will get killed" was Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 against the big-name's during Royal Road like Kobashi, Akiyama, Misawa, Vader, Hansen and Williams as it seemed those guys would always get a huge momentum boost sometime during the match and could easily put me away if I was careless. It seems that the trend during the past couple of years of most wrestling games for the consoles are getting more concerned with the presentation and multiplayer (online and off) that they forget about the single player in-ring aspect and especially anything with the letters A and I in the phrase. Now I am not stating that Yukes games are worthless or that people who buy them are brain dead zombies (I pick up a WWE game every now and then and I am only 3/4 braindead), they accomplish bringing the WWE sports entertainment presentation to the fans of the product which is great. I am optimistic every year when a new WWE game is released and look forward to reading about the new features and have fun going through the story/season modes a couple times. To get back on topic and off the soapbox, I just think that it's refreshing when a wrestling game offer's a genuine one on one in-ring challenge. Good review and I agree with everything you wrote especially the part about A.I. and challenge.

[Remianen]

[QUOTE=Ja7482]The last wrestling video game I remember feeling a sense of tension before the match and thinking to myself that "I have to play a great to near-perfect match, or I will get killed" was Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 against the big-name's during Royal Road like Kobashi, Akiyama, Misawa, Vader, Hansen and Williams as it seemed those guys would always get a huge momentum boost sometime during the match and could easily put me away if I was careless. It seems that the trend during the past couple of years of most wrestling games for the consoles are getting more concerned with the presentation and multiplayer (online and off) that they forget about the single player in-ring aspect and especially anything with the letters A and I in the phrase.[/QUOTE] This isn't fair. You're being overly harsh to a segment of gaming where difficulty and complexity are undesireable. Or rather, not as desireable as aesthetics. If you think that's not true, lemme ask a simple question: Which game sold more units, Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 or Smackdown vs. Raw or WCW Revenge or WCW World Tour or Wrestlemania 2000? Console games are made to be simple to appeal to the widest audience possible. Also, to inspire the need to buy MORE of them. And for the life of me, I can't think of a single text-based console title that did well but I can list off at least a hundred text-based PC titles that did (going all the way back to Zork I & A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). For those reasons, I think any comparison between GDSs games and console titles is grossly unfair. Not meant in an insulting way but the fact is, console gaming is to PC gaming what Fisher Price keyboards are to Roland keyboards. Multiplayer options included in a console game are specifically to combat the lack of complexity of the base (single-player) game. The thought is, if you inject human intelligence into the game somehow, that adds to the challenge and complexity (true, to an extent). Sorry for the tangent but it just kinda gets to me with folks trying to compare WreSpi to SvR or any console game. In addition to being an excellent game on a superior platform, Adam had the benefit of being able to invest the bulk of his time in the gameplay side of things without having to worry about art assets possibly making his baby stillborn. So he could make a game that could keep us occupied for 6 months or more without "pritty pikchurs" and that's exactly what he did, by my estimation. But if he were making WreSpi2 for consoles, I'd guarantee that same focus wouldn't exist simply because of the difference between the two platforms and their core audiences. Plus the fact that I can (and do) still play games I bought 20 years ago today. My Colecovision cartridges are useless to me now though.

[Thomnipotent]

Remianen, Ja7482, I'm pretty sure you guys are both making the same point. On a side note, to comment on the unpredictability of the matches, Erik Strong schooled me in RTL mode in under 5 minutes. :P

[Ja7482]

[QUOTE]This isn't fair. You're being overly harsh to a segment of gaming where difficulty and complexity are undesireable.[/QUOTE] In my previous reply I admitted that I occasionally play the SvsR games for the aesthetic value or the sports-entertainment experience. I had fun with SvsR but wanted more out of the in-ring portion. I know that the WWE games appeal to mostly a different audience than what WreSpi appeals too but most people who read the WreSpi forum are not the "we just want nice graphics" type even if they buy every wrestling game for their consoles. I thought my comparision was fair since I was comparing two factors that IMO should be strong in both games. It's not like I hate twitch-based gameplay and writing that WreSpi by default is better since it's turn-based or that SvsR is better cause of the graphics. Having a competent A.I., removing the obvious exploits and a difficulty that can offer a challenge should be a universal thing among sim or action games no matter what machine you play on. Plenty of console games I have played have none of those issues. All my previous reply was stating to the topic creator was that it is refreshing to see a wrestling game with the strengths I mentioned above (and brought up in the review) and my side rant of WWE games getting progressively lazy on the A.I. and challenge front which makes playing WreSpi all that much better.